With spring, mothers across the animal world give life to new young, including penguin chicks at the New England Aquarium. Behind the scenes, four new little blue penguin chicks have emerged from their eggs. Little blue penguins are from Australia and are the smallest penguin species in the world. Visitors at the Aquarium often think that the adult little blues are baby penguins.


These two chicks are 27 days old, weigh 27 ounces and are grapefruit-sized bunches of grayish blue down. The unnamed chicks are siblings. Their mother is Carmac, a nine year old female who was also hatched here in Boston. She is an experienced mother as these are her fourth and fifth chicks. These chicks will remain behind the scenes with mom and dad for several more weeks, until they're big and strong enough to feed, swim, and preen on their own.

If you need another of penguin chicks, meet some of last year's bundles of fluff on the Penguin Blog.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there — whether their children are fluffy youngsters or have flown the coop.